


Stalwart and True

by grimorie



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Challenge: Shoot Week, Drama, Established Relationship, F/F, Gen, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 00:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2089734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimorie/pseuds/grimorie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three weeks and there was still no sign of Root since she walked away from the warehouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stalwart and True

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer** : Characters, concept and setting doesn't belong to me. I'm just borrowing Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman's sandbox.
> 
>  
> 
> **Spoilers** Season Four-ish. From Idle speculation and spoilers.
> 
> Prompt: Shaw has to do something to get back into Root's good graces after she pisses Root off somehow (Root's anger is entirely justified!). Original link [here](http://isagrimorie.tumblr.com/post/93958301611/shoot-week-prompt-shaw-has-to-do-something-to-get-back)

John had never seen Root so _livid_.

He didn't know what had gone on between Shaw and Root in the warehouse, but right after they completed the mission, Root rounded on Shaw with a venomous glare and slapped her. It wasn't even a little bit playful, the sound of it echoed in the suddenly silent warehouse but Shaw didn't even turn her head against the slap.

She bore the whole force of it but that seemed to only infuriate Root.

"Don't follow me," Root growled and stormed out.

John finished zip tying the gun runners to a pole and finally walked into Shaw's field of vision. There was an angry red on her cheek and she was staring ahead of her in stoic silence.

"Do I want to know what that's about?"

Shaw flicked her eyes to John, breaking the intense silence hanging around her. "No. You don't."

John supposed he could have pushed but it wasn't the time, they both left the warehouse just as the sirens sounded in the distance.

Three weeks. Its been three weeks since the warehouse and there was still no sign of Root, since they all reunited after Samaritan went online, Root never went three days without hunting one of them down. Even Harold's beginning to question Root's absence and Shaw grew more sullen each passing day.

After one more harrowing mission, juggling two lives on top of everything else...

"Get her back," John said. Shaw turned her head sharply in his direction. "I don't care what you did, or what she did. We're a team. Get her back."

Harold would never ask this of Shaw, he was still raw after Samaritan broke their lives apart, after the Machine seemed to break his heart even more.

"Are you serious right now?"

"You heard me, Shaw. This city is too damned big to protect and we need the extra edge. You _know_ this, and any other time, you'd be the first to acknowledge this but you got your head screwed wrong. So get her back."

"You don't think I haven't tried?" Shaw said, kicking over some loose gravel. "She doesn't want to be found, she's better at hiding now she's got the Machine talking to her again."

John considered this, "Two can play that game, you know."

"I'm not an admin, _John_ , I'm also not a goddamned interface."

"You're close enough to both."

Shaw stopped kicking dirt around. "What are you saying?"

"You're a smart girl, Shaw. Figure it out."

"I'm not going to stand around and start shouting at cameras."

John started to walk. "I don't care how you do it, get her back."

* * *

Root slipped inside the room and stopped short at the entrance. It was rounding off almost a month, but Root knew that familiar figure leaning against the far wall. She would know it even if she lost all sense of sight and only see a blur of black against the wall.

Root hated it.

"What the hell are you doing here?" And how come She didn't warn her about Shaw?

Shaw opened her eyes, they locked eyes briefly then she looked around the room. "Your safe house was a bitch to get to."

"That's the whole point of a safe house," she answered. "What part of 'don't follow me' wasn't clear?"

"The part where you disappear a whole month," Shaw replied and pushed off the wall, she walked forward and stopped at the center of the room.

"I've been busy." And she had been, Root asked for assignments that took her all over, demanded it of her god. She didn't want to at first, but apparently there were a lot of Necessary things she was holding back, trying to keep them safe.

"You need to come back."

Root laughed. "Try again."

Shaw's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"Apologies usually start with: 'I'm wrong'." Root saw the understanding appear in her eyes but also the way Shaw's expression shuttered even more. "You're kidding, you're not even here to apologize."

Shaw closed her eyes again then opened them as she let out a breath. "I can't apologize for what I believe, Root. But, I am _sorry_ that I said it in a way that hurt you."

" _Bzzzt_. Wrong answer."

Shaw waved her hand in exasperation. "What do you want me to say? I'm not going to stand here and lie to you, pretend--"

Root lunged for Shaw, Shaw raised her hands on instinct, clamping down on Root's wrists before they reached her face. Root persisted, pushing her arms forward. Shaw searched her face and whatever she saw there, she let Root's hands frame her face and pushed even more until Root had her cornered.

Root pressed her forehead against Shaw's and bared her teeth. "That's exactly what I want you to do. _Lie_ to me."

Again, Shaw looked into Root's eyes, there was a long beat. Entire empires rose and fell at the time between them but it also felt like mere seconds passed. "No."

She let go of Shaw's face and let out a frustrated growl then she took a step back and took out her gun and aimed it straight at Shaw, and of course in the face of further violence. Shaw didn't waver. In fact she stepped into it. Pressed forward until an inch separated Shaw from the muzzle.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Root, not about that." Shaw said, holding her gaze. "And, yeah, I _could_ be wrong. But I'm not going to take it back. I'm sorry what I said and did drove you away but I'm not sorry why I did it. Harold and John need you."

Root let her arm drop and laughed. "You were doing so well until the last part."

For the first time, Shaw looked uncomfortable. "I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"It shows."

"Thanks." Shaw said, drily. A hair short of sarcastic. She was trying at least.

The day of the warehouse seemed far away, but she'd also had a month to let the anger seethe and play out, the Machine kept her occupied, kept her safe. Arranged a way for her cover to hold while her entirely too dangerous anger raged through her.

Shaw was wrong. Shaw chose wrong. But Shaw was immovable in the face of it, no matter what Root said.

"How did you find me?"

"The only way to, the Machine told me."

Root tipped her head to the side. "She told you? You _talked_ to her?"

Shaw's face soured. "Not my shining moment. For the record, I didn't stand on street corners shouting at surveillance cameras."

How do you even talk down an immovable object, short of battering it into pieces?

"How is this even going to work?" Root said, out loud. Hoping for an answer, from Her at least. Because it was with Her blessing that Shaw found her.

The answer came from a warm hand over her own, Root's eyes flew to Shaw. "We're never going to agree on everything but I swear that you always know where you stand with me."

There was a short burst in her ear, like a phone cue.

Root moved without thinking and pressed her lips against Shaw's. This wasn't the first time they've kissed, the first was after a gun fight, a bullet nicked Shaw's arm, another grazed Root's left leg.

And yet, between the two of them, and their lack of moral compunction they both managed to decimate the other trigger team in a hail of bullets.

Then Root said something, she can't even recall what it was she said but Shaw looked at her with blazing eyes, pushed her against the wall. Root thought Shaw would kill her.

She kissed Root instead.

Root had smirked into the kiss, Shaw had felt it and bit her lip. Root yipped at the sudden pain and when Shaw pulled away, there was blood on Shaw's lips. Shaw looked feral and Root felt a sense of possession and victory that she was the cause of the look.

Root smudged the blood all the way to the corner of Shaw's lips, ignoring the stinging pain on her own. Root's blood looked pretty against Shaw's skin.

Blood and violence marked almost every kiss since and everything that led after that.

But this time when Shaw kissed her, her kiss was a promise and it burned into Root, more steadily than the fires of anger banking in her. Root pulled away, slowly since Shaw wouldn't. Shaw chased after her but paused, dropping her head on Root's chin. It was a victory of sorts, Shaw's own version of apology. 

"This doesn't make it right between us." Her voice sounded raw to her own ears. Shaw looked at her.

"I know."

Root's thumb drew circles over Shaw's knuckles.

"Are you coming back?"

"Apparently ," and here Root didn't bother to hide her sarcasm. "'Harold and John' need me."

"That's what John said," Shaw said, defensive.

Root chuckled. "We're hopeless."

Shaw didn't say anything, but she did pull the gun away from Root's hand. "We got a long drive ahead, we have to go."

Nothing's fixed, they still have to work on it and one day, everything will come to a head and Root doesn't know if they will survive the cataclysm in the horizon. But Shaw found her, and Shaw spoke to Her.

And hard work was never a thing Root shied away from. "We'll make this work."

Shaw looked at her, eyes clear and filled with something like purpose. "Yeah."

  


* * *

_Buffy: Does it ever get easy?_

_Giles:You mean life?_

_Buffy: Yeah. Does it get easy?_

_Giles: What do you want me to say?_

_Buffy: Lie to me._

_Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after._

_Buffy: Liar._

\-- Lie to Me, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t quite know if I fulfilled that prompt to your liking, anon. I started writing and this is what appeared from my head. I never quite specified what it is Shaw said or did to make Root so terribly angry. I figured its better left to the imagination, because I think whatever it is that angered Root must be something they will have difficulty tackling.
> 
> And since I think Root and Shaw are novices in this relationship thing, and they are both immovable in their convictions. Root might be right, and Shaw could be wrong, but her point might still stand, whatever it is they fought over, its bigger than the both of them. This is just one of the things they have to find away to make work.
> 
> I hope you still enjoyed the story though!


End file.
